The Heart of Bucks ‘Inspiring Buckinghamshire’ series gives local people from a range of sectors a chance to share their knowledge and insights to help inspire others.
Here we are speaking with Tom Shimony, Chairman of the Young Futures Board and member of the Buckinghamshire Council Youth Committee.
Tell us about yourself and your connection to Buckinghamshire.
The obvious answer about my connection to Bucks is that I’ve lived here since birth, but that is only a superficial answer. All the jobs I’ve had have been here, including my first ‘proper’ job working at Aylesbury Grammar School as a cover supervisor, the school I went to for my secondary education, right up to my current job working for Ocado. I am in the process of becoming a police officer for Thames Valley Police, and through that I will be attaining a degree with the Bucks New Uni, an experience I am very excited for.
On a different note, before I spent a year and a half traveling, I volunteered and then worked for the National Citizenship Service. This stoked a strong desire to help the charitable organisations of Bucks, and through which a link can directly be drawn to my participation in the Heart of Bucks Young Futures Fund; it started as part of the youth board for the charity which ran NCS in Bucks, followed by chairing the County Council Youth Committee, and then being recommended to apply to this charity and its new board.
What personal achievements are you most proud of?
Whilst having no link to anything about Bucks I have to say that spending over a year and a half (581 days to be precise) travelling is my proudest personal achievement. I spent three months in Europe, three months in the US, a year volunteering in Israel which is where I met my partner and then three weeks in South Africa to meet her family, before coming back home. However I think it speaks volumes that I was excited to be back home and face new challenges including the upcoming career move of working for TVP and through that hopefully making an impact on my local community. That said, and much more relevant to Bucks, I am incredibly proud of the fact that I was able to chair the County Council’s Youth Committee and that I am now able to chair this fantastic board and guide how significant money can be spent improving the lives of my peers. The opportunities and experiences these roles have given me have been very impactful on who I am, and I’m grateful to have been given such chances to improve my community.
What are some of the challenges you have faced, and how have you overcome them?
Returning home from such a long period abroad was an intense transition, not made easier by the challenge of finding somewhere to rent as I wanted my own space (and I’m sure my parents missed me but didn’t want me moving back in after so long away…!) however I shouldn’t complain as I got the chance to travel in the first place. I would say that approaching the rental, and wider housing market, for the first time was a daunting experience, one I was only able to succeed in through perseverance but also with the help of friends who had been through the rental markets at uni, an experience I hadn’t had. A broader challenge, and one most of my peers have struggled with in one form or another, is the overarching theme of mental health and a lack of provisions for those struggling – something I am very passionate about and something I’m glad I can positively affect via my position on this fund.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
This is a tough question to answer as no specific pieces of wisdom imparted by others come to mind, however I have to say the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley is a piece of writing that has stuck in my head for a long time – I have leant on its message of perseverance in the face of adversity in some of my tougher times. I also find that I often have to remind myself of the adage ‘perfect is the enemy of good’ as I can be quite a perfectionist. As I write this I am reminded of something one of my primary school teachers once said to me ‘practice makes progress’ (as opposed to practice makes perfect) which I have found similarly applicable to the above phrase.
What is your greatest hope for the future for Buckinghamshire?
I hope for Bucks to become a more desirable place to want to live – most of my friends, when talking about our futures, agree that whilst they don’t have any overwhelming reason to want to leave Bucks they find they don’t have a huge draw to staying here either. Like all places, we’ve been affected by Covid-19, by politics, by economic struggles, and as such opportunities, support, and positive experiences are on the decline. This is one of the primary reasons I am so keen to be part of boards like the Young Futures Fund – to help return Bucks to a place where young people feel more supported, more engaged, and more keen to stay and to continue improving.
Read more of our Inspiring Buckinghamshire interviews here.
